Many advertisers see the first place in a Pay-Per-Click campaign to be the ultimate objective no matter the cost. This is not always the case with second, third and even fourth proving to be the best spot in many campaigns. In an article covering the Adtech conference at the New York Hilton on Monday, James Beriker, CEO of Search123 is quoted:

Another misconception: people think their company has to come up first in the search listing... Don't let your ego rule that you have to fall first,' he said.

PPC search engine Kanoodle.com have been pushing their new 'Network Placement Program' hard at the moment. With a stiking redesign of the logo and website as well, they are definately trying to pull themselves into contention with some of the big boys in the PPC market.

Boasting top places on Cnet.com, ixQuick.com, Galaxy.com, and Mamma.com will not pull the top advertisers in the market but Kanoodle can be a reasonable low level backup PPC depending on the online industry targeted.

How can you attract visitors to your web site with little or no funding?

Grant Cowell, guest writer at Search Engine Watch and CEO of Grantastic Designs, Inc, attempts to answer the question with the following conclusions:

Find out what you can do in-house and what you need to outsource

Spend for things lasting value - content, optimization, research

Closely monitor what is actually working to maximize budget

Consider additional education

Make best use of online resources

Enlist an SEO specialist for at least consulting

This provides a good checklist for assessing your capabilites in marketing your own site. Most will find the use of an search engine marketing specialist provides a wealth of inside tips and strategies that are accumulated over time working in the industry.

With Yahoo now showing Google SERP's it is still debated by a number of SEO's whether or not this is a good thing for Yahoo or not. I would have to agree with Doug (ihelpyouservices):

'If you think about it, the goals of Yahoo and google are very different from each other.

Yahoo:

Wants their visitors to stay on their web site and do something. Many things they want... page views, groups, etc.

Google:

Wants their visitors to click on one SERP result and that be the very page their visitor needs/wants. They know if the visitor is given what he/she wants quickly, that visitor will come back again and again.

Quite an inventive way of reminding yourself to lookup something when you are away from your PC. Only available in the UK at the moment but I can imagine the system will be licenced out around the world soon enough.

'The service works by users texting the command 'QLIX' followed by their search keywords to 83050 (25p/39c per Qlix). Following this, Qlix sends a confirmation SMS detailing the number of results found. When users check their email, they will find the search results waiting in their inbox, reminding them of their interest and allowing them to start the online exploration of the search they launched from their mobile phone.'

Danny Sullivan writes on the issue of the AltaVista paid inclusion program increasing ranking results - 'it turns out that Trusted Feed content may indeed get a bump into the top results, in the right circumstances'.

November 6, 2002

Googlism

'Googlism.com will find out what Google.com thinks of you' - Googlism.

November 5, 2002

Regional Directory & Search - Christchurch, New Zealand

Some sites do not look exactly like a standard search directory such as the ODP. However there are more and more sites being created which emulate the regional aspect of these mega directories with specific regional content. Launched late last week for the Christchurch New Zealand search market is 'LocalEye' - where 'over 3,000 resources have been catalogued'.

A combined effort by a number of local bodies and businesses (including the Christchurch City Council and Christhchurch City Libraries) there is also a Canterbury Search available that 'only gives results that are connected in some way with Christchurch and Canterbury. No need to work your way through hundreds of search results when you are looking for local information.'

'Ask a question. Set your price. Get your answer.' - this is the keyline for the lastest push from Google. Google Answers has been around for a while now but has recently been pushed into the limelight with Google linking on it's homepage. How does it work? Have a look here for the FAQ's. Basically you ask a question and set a price, if a researcher wants to answer it at that price they will and you (plus everyone else) get's the result.

On doing a quick search on 'search engine optimisation' this answer came up from the question: 'We want to get great search engine coverage especially by google.' - Answer, Subject: Re: Google search engine coverage. Not a bad guide for dos and don'ts when dealing with Google.